Before the conference started, Stephan and I, we spent two
days discovering the city. The rest was me and myself, other than some
very interesting dinners.

Our first discovery was the neighborhood of Recoleta.
We walked to this upscale neighborhood, passed some beautiful embassies, and
then on to the Arts Museum and the cemetery of Recoleta.

Buildings

and monuments in the same district.

museum Museo National de Bella Artes

It is a small museum with a modest but beautiful
permanent collection

la recoleta - cemetery

Opened in 1820, it is more a mostly Christian sculpture
garden. The sculptures are all unique, telling the story of the people who
wanted to make a statement. The mausoleums include Armenian families, the Duarte Family where Evita rests, and plenty of sad stories.
After visiting the Church of Our Lady of Pilar
(Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Pilar), we went to the cemetery.

When you walk in you are met with streets and streets of mausoleums, some are
pretty spooky with broken glass and coffins on view; and some abandoned and in
disrepair.

The saddest two were these of young girls one of whom died unexpectedly - and
people say they see her walk the grounds late at night [left]; and the other was
a victim of ski accident in the Alps [right].

the funniest [Flia Cabril, left] and the oldest [right]

Mrs. Cabril spent too much money and made debts. In
desperation Mr. Cabril took a whole page in every newspaper in BA announcing he
would not clear her debts from that day on. In anger, the Mrs. did not
speak to her husband to the end of his life and in her will she requested a bust
looking away from him.

Sunday, we went to find the Armenian community and the
Armenian Church, which we did. We went to a 'Badarak" made our donations to the
church, spoke to a nice man who told me a lot of details about Armenians in
Argentina and then went to lunch at Cafe Bartok.

Top: Classic Armenian Church - women
inside and men chatting in the vestibule. Below: April 24, 1915 Memorial

Stephan's IETF was at the Hilton. Here are pictures of that neighborhood.

Honoring
the Argentinean heritage of the current Dutch queen and Anne Frank

The complicated
relationship between the Peróns and Argentina may have finally come to a
peaceful end. Juan Domingo Perón 40 years after his death got the first statue
in Buenos Aires, near Casa Rosada [on Plaza Agustin P. Justo], and Evita
according to current day Argentineans is a saint, including having her image on
the 100 peso bill.

Plaza de Mayo

.

Tbelow: The Buenos Aires
Metropolitan Cathedral and the side Chapel that holds the remains of General
Jose de San Martin [a leader of the fight for independence] where they
have guards and a ceremony of the changing of the guards every day.